Tweak Passenger Fairs, Frequency and Destinations

Exile · Post by **Exile** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 7:28 pm

The people of the Evochron universe aren't realistic travellers.

I would imagine that most fairs would be people on surface wishing to go to a space station where they could then get transport elsewhere on a larger ship.

I'd like to see passenger missions on planets that have space stations orbiting them, where exactly that is happening.

Also, cargo should be able to hold passengers, therefore you could have 25 persons going from surface to station for 100 credits a head, for 2500 credits total for that load.

A person with full cargo slots could make quick yet still balanced income on ferrying passengers from surface to station.

So far as I'm concerned, passenger fairs should be available at all major stations and planets.

Furthermore, the rates at which they charge should not drop based on how long it takes to travel to said destination, Where in our current reality does such a system exist?

I wouldn't ever agree to such terms if I owned my own ship. If some man said he'd pay me a million credits to go to a station in Orion, and when we got to the destionation, he told me he's now only paying me 5 000, I'd probably jettison that b**tard out the airlock.

Ferrying passengers could be a main source of income for players in the game.

Makes sense to me anyway.

SDWeimer · Post by **SDWeimer** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 7:43 pm

I like this idea, it always seems like they want to travel to the other end of the universe (IIRC) as its been a while since i've taken this kind of contract.

Rubber Chicken · Post by **Rubber Chicken** » Sat Apr 14, 2012 7:50 pm

I haven't tried many 'passenger missions', but I do agree they are a little 'odd' to say the least. Sometimes one will generate that asks to travel a distance impossible to achieve within the time limit. Especially if you don't know wormhole shortcuts.

I kind of agree with the passenger ferry idea. I think if you are going to transport passengers in that manner, you should have to purchase some sort of cargo bay with accomodations for them, and you should only be able to equip one of this type of cargo bay.

Exile · Post by **Exile** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 12:23 am

From post: 135069, Topic: tid=9198, author=Rubber Chicken wrote: you should only be able to equip one of this type of cargo bay.

I agree with this also, however that would be more work for Vice.

I think just changing the parameters of the mission itself would be a quick feasible fix.

Whereas adding a new type of cargo bay would require Vice to modify many more parts of the game including user interface data, models etc.

Accountant · Post by **Accountant** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 3:07 am

From post: 135067, Topic: tid=9198, author=Exile wrote: Furthermore, the rates at which they charge should not drop based on how long it takes to travel to said destination, Where in our current reality does such a system exist?

Airlines provide discounts, meal vouchers, and other forms of compensation for delays they are responsible for. I suppose it could be argued that you were late and the rate drop is compensation to the passenger for the delay.

-Accountant

[Edited on 4-15-2012 by Accountant]

Exile · Post by **Exile** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 3:49 am

From post: 135087, Topic: tid=9198, author=Accountant wrote:
From post: 135067, Topic: tid=9198, author=Exile wrote: Furthermore, the rates at which they charge should not drop based on how long it takes to travel to said destination, Where in our current reality does such a system exist?
Airlines provide discounts, meal vouchers, and other forms of compensation for delays they are responsible for. I suppose it could be argued that you were late and the rate drop is compensation to the passenger for the delay.

-Accountant

[Edited on 4-15-2012 by Accountant]

True, however airlines also have a flat rate for travel between two destinations, regardless of how badly delayed a flight may be.

Not to mention, the speed and quantity at which the prices drop are unreasonably great.

Rubber Chicken · Post by **Rubber Chicken** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 4:24 am

Even so IIRC sometimes the rate drops BEFORE you run out if time. It really gets bad when the 'contract' is set to pay a decent wage, and you end up with enough for gas money and some road snacks.

Scavenger4711 · Post by **Scavenger4711** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 8:39 am

I like the idea, but IMO one person should take up more than 1 unit in your cargo slot. I mean just imagine: if you collect 25 platinum it would be like having 25 crates or containers of platinum inside your cargo hold. And our passengers have earned some comfort, haven't they

Also it would be quite funny for me to imagine that there are 25 people crowded inside your cargo hold. They have nothing to hold on to during the flight and you pick them up from a planet's city, want to ascend into space, and the first thing to do is to pull up your nose upwards to 90Â° with all your passengers being like "OH MY GOOOOOD! WHAT'S HAPPENING!?"

Maybe a system that punishes you for too high or too low angles while flying inside a planet's atmosphere could resolve the problem. This would then force the player to fly up into space in an angle of, let's say 15-20Â° or something.

Just my thoughts on this

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 9:06 am

From post: 135093, Topic: tid=9198, author=Scavenger4711 wrote: Also it would be quite funny for me to imagine that there are 25 people crowded inside your cargo hold. They have nothing to hold on to during the flight and you pick them up from a planet's city, want to ascend into space, and the first thing to do is to pull up your nose upwards to 90Â° with all your passengers being like "OH MY GOOOOOD! WHAT'S HAPPENING!?"

ROFLMAO!!!

:P:P

Exile · Post by **Exile** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 2:14 pm

From post: 135093, Topic: tid=9198, author=Scavenger4711 wrote:
...one person should take up more than 1 unit in your cargo slot...

...Maybe a system that punishes you for too high or too low angles while flying inside a planet's atmosphere...

If you think about how much money you're making on one single unit of mineral, it's reasonable to assume that one unit in your cargo hold is approximately a metric tonne.

One person does not need more space than 25 metric tonnes of platinum does.

I think the idea of having specialized cargo holds that are designed only to carry passengers would be a balanced addition, however the problem with that as I mentioned previously is that it would be more work for Vice.

As far as the penalties for angle of flight, that too would be more coding for Vice.

I was trying to put forward an idea that is simple to amend in the current game by changing a couple of values in the existing code, instead of asking Vice to re-write the passenger code lines altogether.

Nevertheless, in a perfect world, I agree with the need for "Passenger Cargo Pods" in order to be allowed to carry many fares at once.

And in the future if Cap Ships become a reality, a player could turn a transport ship into a Star liner of sorts and ferry thousands of people from one location to another for a small fortune at a time.

[Edited on 15-4-12 by Exile]

Rubber Chicken · Post by **Rubber Chicken** » Sun Apr 15, 2012 2:37 pm

In a perfect world it's a great idea. I mean we could - if cap ships got implemented - even have prisoner transports. Then depending on whether or not there's prison ships or regular cruise liners, the need for appropriate attendant crew could be needed. Prisoners need to be guarded, and if the model reflects the current state of things, BOTH the prisoners and 'civilian' passengers will need someone to explain in no uncertain terms 'There will be no respect or snacks given on this flight!'.

Anyway though, - while this may be a good idea - we're really starting to get down to splitting hairs here. If Vice could code all of his great ideas in moments instead of days, weeks or months, and everybody who played was guarranteed to be using the most up to date equipment at any given moment, we would have a much different EM. There'd be photo - realistic graphics and a feature set that blew anything else out of the water.

Instead he must filter through his ideas and pick out the ones he believes to be the most feasible to implement. I mean really, Star Trek style 'Holodecks' probably aren't going to be a standard part of home entertainment outfitting for quite a long time!:P:P

Nigel_Strange · Post by **Nigel_Strange** » Mon Apr 16, 2012 2:33 am

Time for me to weigh in on this issue.

I like the idea of ferrying people from surface to station. I also like the idea of ferrying people from surface to capship or from station to capship and vice versa. It would also be neat to ferry cargo from capship to station or planet or any combination of those. You should get enough money to entice you to do it. After all: that's how the economy works: if the goods/people are not moving, then it means the payoff isn't high enough to transport them. Increase the payment, and then you get people who are willing to do the work (unions, of course, undermine this exercise of free enterprise).

All the elements are already there, and it should not be a mystery how goods move from one place to the next within the same system.

I would probably limit the the number of riders to the number of crew members because I do not think of the rest of the ship as being habitable.

I will relate an amusing anecdote. I was playing Pioneer alpha 20. I had bought 8 tons of slaves because they're just cargo (I feel no moral outrage about exploiting virtual slavery). I was going to ferry them to a planet in another system in which slaves brought a fairly good price. Nobody told me, however, that the ship needed some special accomodation for ferrying living cargo (life support for the cargo area). I guess the seller fo the slaves did not have any morality either: she made her money when I bought them and stuffed them into my cargo hold.

When I finally got to my destination and opened my cargo hold to sell my slaves, I found that instead of 8 tons of slaves, I had 8 tons of fertilizer. True story. I think the guy modeled that economic (and biological) reality absolutely perfectly, though in real life, I would have been able to tell that the slaves would not survive by inspecing the cargo space.

I mentioned in another thread that I would like to have units converted into cubic meters. So, cargo space is limited by volume, but since each material has different density, you can possibly overload your ship. By overload, I meant that as you take on more mass, it takes more energy to accelerate and more energy to decelerate and maneuver. Hence: if your ship is empty, then you can be as nimble as your frame allows, but if you are fully laden with 125 cubic meters of platinum, then your ship would be barely capable of movement at all. Jumping would still work as usual, but you would have be careful about where you jumped, so if you missed the station, it might take you all night to turn around (unless you dropped your freight.

It would also add an element of strategy. If enemy ships could be coerced into dropping their cargo before they blew, you would have the chance to grab it, but upon doing so, you would be stuck with a lot more weight, and so it would be difficult to fight back if your piracy victim decides to turn the tides on you. Naturally, it would be prudent to pick up cargo ONLY when you were safe.

So, my two pence.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Mon Apr 16, 2012 2:47 am

From post: 135136, Topic: tid=9198, author=Nigel_Strange wrote:I was going to ferry them to a planet in another system in which slaves brought a fairly good price. Nobody told me, however, that the ship needed some special accomodation for ferrying living cargo (life support for the cargo area). I guess the seller fo the slaves did not have any morality either: she made her money when I bought them and stuffed them into my cargo hold.

Wow, what a way to go... stuffed in a cargo hold with twenty some other and no air...

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Mon Apr 16, 2012 2:52 am

I would like to see changes on this matter myself. Replacing cargo slots for transportation slots doesn't sound bad, but at least change the pricing system. If I pick up a passenger, and take them half way aross the galaxy, running into untold hazards, just to deliver them to their destination, and get reduced pay... I'm with Exile... Docking bay is that way... hold your breath

....

[Edited on 4-16-2012 by Austin]